Can you imagine if before the Wimbledon singles final, Roger Federer cut a baseball-sized hole in his racket? Or prior to the Derby, Frankie Dettori broke his horse’s leg? How about Mike Atherton taking a penknife to a cricket ball before we faced the Indian spinners? There would be outrage.
Yet Moyes willfully chose to handicap us in our pursuit of the first piece of silverware in 30 years by omitting six of our current first-choice players last night against Wolves! There is no excuse. We aren’t in Europe, so we don’t have fixture congestion.
Some years back, Aston Villa were looking good in the Europa League but they were also chasing 4th place in the Premier League. Their manager Martin O’Neill calculated there was a better chance of securing Champions League football through the Premier League placings, so he put out a B team in the Europa League to save legs. They lost… and then missed out on 4th anyway, so it blew up in his face. But it was a calculated gamble.
Likewise, Burnley under Dyche were doing okay in Europe but struggling in the Premier League so he similarly prioritized the domestic competition, rested players, went out of Europe and avoided relegation. A calculated gamble he can argue he got right.
What was the upside for Everton last night? We aren’t in the relegation zone. We aren’t in the title race. We have almost a week before our next game. Why did England’s number one plus five others need a night getting splinters? What were we saving them for? There was zero upside.
This was a dereliction of duty. It warrants investigation and is a sackable offence. If anyone of us went to work tomorrow and deliberately sabotaged our workplace, would we expect to have a job tomorrow? No, sorry, Moyes, but it’s at worst match-fixing… and at best arrogance-inspired incompetence.
Moyes Out!